True confession: The first time I heard Sacha Baron Cohen speak beyond the theatrical context of his “moviefilm” life, I was less than impressed. It was 14 years ago, before an SRO and riled-up Lobero Theater crowd as part of SBIFF, buzzing on the heels of his first, career-launching Borat film, and Cohen seemed something of a sneering, pugnacious punk, gracious to neither the hosting festival and the host of the evening, Leonard Maltin. But the fawning crowd ate up his “up against the Man” act, which felt like so much munching on hands that fed him.
Of course, the underlying point was that Cohen was, in fact, at least half in character, as he has been for most of his career. Subsequent interview settings — in an in-depth conversation with Terry Gross, for instance, and elsewhere — and deeper readings of his oeuvre reveal a truer, more socially conscious and committed activist ethos at work behind the prankster surface. As he mentioned, at one point on Wednesday — during what will probably be the most remarkable tribute session of the current festival’s tribute roster, for the “Outstanding Performer of the Year” Award on Wednesday night at SBIFF 2021 — “This is my least popular character, Sacha Baron Cohen.” He was being self-effacing about his role as interviewee, but he’s got that character nailed, as well — the articulate student of history and champion of human compassion.
Setting an aptly loopy atmosphere for the event, it opened with a two-shot of both event host Scott Feinberg and SBIFF domo Roger Durling, perched before a fireplace in a suite at the swanky El Encanto hotel, alongside a compact canine as prop and petting object. Durling was dressed in a cream-colored suit resembling the attire of Cohen himself, appearing in a room with a backyard/orchard in the background (whereabouts undisclosed: as one of cinema’s most daring provocateurs, Cohen/Borat benefits from clandestine conditions).